Friday night at Brownridge Court in Prince George, the UNBC Timberwolves (0-7) dropped a hard-fought battle to the visiting UBC Okanagan Heat (3-4) by an 84-74 margin. Jalen Shirley (23), Jeffrey Tezo (20) and Jas Duhdwal (16) did the heavy lifting offensively for the Heat while Dhudwal's nine rebounds were also a team high. For UNBC the tandem of Evgeny Baukin (30 points, nine rebounds, four assists) and Justin Sunga (24 points, eight assists, four rebounds) did all they could to try and send the home crowd home happy in response.
 
After one, the TWolves trailed by a slim 21-17 margin. Jas Dhudwal paced the Heat with six points on three-of-four from the field. He also grabbed an impressive five first-quarter rebounds. Jeffrey Tezo added five points and Isaak Moore supplied four for the visitors in the opening 10. For UNBC the catalyst offensively was Baukin. The talented Russian had a team-high seven points on three-of-five while five other TWolves (Justin Sunga, Chris Ainsley, Isaiah Bias, Will Keyes and Ben White) found the scoresheet.
 
In the second, UNBC outscored the Heat 17-16 and again it was Baukin doing the heavy lifting, shooting for-of-six. Rookie Isaiah Bias chimed in with five second quarter points, including an elbow three that got the Brownridge Court crowd fired up. Sunga also hit from deep in the second. Dhudwal added six more in response for UBCO while Jalen Shirley bagged his first six points of the night after an oh-for-five first quarter.
 
At half the score read 37-34 for UBCO with Dhudwal leading the charge with 12 points and nine rebounds. At the other end Baukin's 16 were tops for UNBC and Will Keyes topped the Green and Gold with five first-half rebounds.
 
A back-and-forth third quarter saw UBCO escape with a slim 62-57 lead. After a tough first half, UBCO's Shirley supplied his squad with eight third quarter points on three-of-seven shooting. On the defensive side, Shirley had three steals in the third quarter alone. Jeffrey Tezo added seven for the visitors. The third quarter horse for UNBC was Sunga who shot three-for-three from deep and four-for-five total en route to a 12-point quarter.  Baukin added six more and Danilo Gonzalez hit from deep, giving UNBC their third triple in the quarter.
 
The revved up Friday night crowd at Brownridge Court did their best to spark a rally for UNBC in the fourth, but credit the Heat for containing the TWolves to just 17 fourth quarter points. UBCO posted 22 of their own in the final quarter with Shirley supplying the lion's share with nine. Baukin (8) and Sunga (7) teamed up for 15 of UNBC's 17 points in the final Q, but ultimately it wasn't quite enough as the Heat held an 84-74 edge when all was said and done.
 
Through 36 minutes played, Shirley led UBCO with 23 points in eight-of-22. Baukin's 30 topped UNBC but Sunga's 24 (with eight assists too) was not far off. For Baukin it marked a new career high for points in a single game.
 
Todd Jordan's club won't have to wait long for another shot at the Heat as these two sides meet again on Saturday night at 7:00 pm at Brownridge Court.